Witness: Driver stopped, viewed accident

BARNSTABLE — The person driving the car that struck Sheila Moreta on Route 28 in Hyannis stopped, got out and looked at the scene before driving away, the woman riding bicycles with Moreta that night in 2012 testified Tuesday.

BARNSTABLE — The person driving the car that struck Sheila Moreta on Route 28 in Hyannis stopped, got out and looked at the scene before driving away, the woman riding bicycles with Moreta that night in 2012 testified Tuesday.

Livanny Torres was the first witness called in the Barnstable Superior Court trial of Angelica Barroso. Barroso, 24, of Cotuit, is charged with leaving the scene of an accident that resulted in personal injury and death. She allegedly was driving the BMW that struck Moreta, a 20-year-old Dominican student, shortly after 2 a.m. June 14, 2012, near the intersection of Route 28 and Pitcher's Way.

Moreta was hit again by another car, whose driver stopped and called for help.

Moreta had arrived on a J-1 work visa just a month earlier and was returning from her first shift at the Wendy's restaurant at the Airport Rotary in Hyannis.

Barroso allegedly kept driving and arrived 90 minutes later at the Falmouth police station, where she told officers she thought she had hit an animal.

According to a 2012 Supreme Judicial Court ruling, the prosecution must prove that Barroso knew she hit a person — not that she knew she hit something — in order for her to be found guilty.

At the time she allegedly hit Moreta, Barroso, who was employed as a home health aide, was supposed to be taking care of an elderly woman. Because that woman was injured as a result of Barroso's absence, according to court records, Barroso is also charged with permitting injury to a disabled or elderly person. Barroso allegedly left her job that night to pick up her twin sister at a nightclub in Hyannis.

In court Tuesday, Barroso waived her right to a jury trial and instead opted for a bench trial, meaning Judge Robert Rufo will decide the outcome.

Torres, who was on a bicycle behind Moreta, testified that she heard a car approaching them "at a high speed."

"I looked back, and when I looked forward, it was too late," Torres told the court as she began to sob.

But a report filed by the prosecution's next witness, Justin Waskiewicz, a former Barnstable police officer who interviewed Torres after the accident, does not mention the driver having left the car.

Waskiewicz testified that he spoke with Torres for only a minute or two after the accident.

"There were no other witnesses to the accident and you spent only a minute with her?" defense attorney George MacKoul asked.

MacKoul also questioned the investigation of Brian Murray, the Barnstable police officer who reconstructed the accident scene.

During questioning by Cape and Islands Assistant District Attorney Michelle Groff, Murray testified that Moreta likely "wrapped" herself on the hood of the car upon initial impact based on the damage to the car.

But during his cross-examination, MacKoul suggested that the impact actually forced Moreta's legs to continue upward, causing her to vault over the roof of the car and come to rest behind it. This would explain why most of Moreta's injuries were to her upper body, MacKoul said.

Murray conceded that the evidence — such as a dent in the roof of the car — could support the "roof vault" theory.

Murray's report indicated a lack of streetlamps in the area of the accident and the presence of rain would have made visibility low.